


Heart of the Diamond

by Jevil_Joss



Series: Steven Universe RWBY Crossover [1]
Category: RWBY, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Body Horror, Crossover, F/F, Non-binary Rainbow Quartz, RWBY S1 Spoilers, References to Abuse, Some Violence Though not Much, Will edit tags as I go, takes place after the movie and the first few episode of Steven Universe Future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 19,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21943798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jevil_Joss/pseuds/Jevil_Joss
Summary: A Steven Universe/RWBY crossover with some of my OCs.
Relationships: Garnet - Relationship, Ruby Rose/Blake Belladonna
Series: Steven Universe RWBY Crossover [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1671520
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	1. The Flawless Diamond and the Diamond in the Rough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I used a new style of writing for the prologue. I haven't done anything like this before, so sorry in advance!

In the beginning, there were two of them. Two Diamonds. 

White Diamond had come out first, and had immediately assumed herself perfect. The Orange Diamond decided that she wasn't perfect, but wanted to be perfect. The two argued about this. In the end, the Orange Diamond had rejected White Diamond, and left, renaming herself Carnelian, and vowing to make things perfect for the rest of the universe. 

White Diamond glared at the retreating Diamond but decided that she was no threat. After all, if she didn't get herself killed, what could she possibly do that could cause White so much grief?

Several million years later. Time passed. Carnelian comes back, excited, proposing a grand new strategy to White Diamond. To make everything perfect for everyone. White Diamond rejects this, as she was already perfect. Carnelian left Homeworld, angery, and full of bitterness. 

She decided that she would make everything perfect. No matter who or what stood in her way. 


	2. Not Ready

"So..." Ruby said. She and Blake sat high up, leaning over the railing of one of Beacon's many balconies. "Are...we going to talk about this?"

"About what?" Blake asked, giving Ruby a look. 

"About us," Ruby said. She didn't look over at Blake. "Uh...you feel the same way, right?"

Blake bit her lip. "Yes," she said carefully. 

"So, um, how far are we going to take it?" Ruby asked. She began idly playing with a few strands of her hair, twirling it around her finger.

"We're not," Blake said firmly. 

Ruby looked at her. "Um...why not?"

"I...I'm not ready for this," Blake said, looking away. Towards the setting sun. "The last person I dated...wasn't a nice guy."

"I'm a nice person," Ruby said. 

"So was he, at first," Blake said quietly. "I...he was not good to me, Ruby." She looked Ruby's way. Ruby seemed distressed. "I...I don't think you're going to turn out the same as him. But for now, it's...just too familiar."

"Familiar?"

"Two shy kids, finally realizing they're in love," Blake said, shaking her head. She leaned on the railing, looking down at the street below. "That was exactly how Adam and I became...a couple." Blake didn't like talking about Adam. She'd made too many mistakes when it came to Adam. She really liked Ruby, and she felt that Ruby would not turn dark like Adam did.

But it was too soon. She hadn't left Adam a full year ago. And yet here she was, about to walk right into the same mistake. She bit her lip. "You're not the problem, Ruby. It's me. I trusted Adam, and I don't know if trusting you will be any different. I...do know. You are different. You won't be like that. But I'm just not ready for this."

"Oh. Uh, okay. F-forget I said anything, then." Ruby attempted a smile, but she couldn't keep it up. "I'll leave you now."

Blake realized she'd hurt Ruby's feelings. "Wait, Ruby, I'm--"

 _Boom._ Both looked up to the sky as something burst through the clouds, trailing smoke. 

"Is that a ship?" Ruby asked. 

"Not like any I've seen," Blake said. She'd seen(and sabotaged) a lot of jets. But none she had seen had looked so odd. It was a reddish-orange color, with black stripes, it had no wings, nothing more than a fin on its back. It was vaguely triangular, with several rockets on its back. It flew through the air, sailing past Beacon Academy and off over the Emerald Forest before crashing into the trees. 

"They could need help!" Ruby cried. "Quick, we've got to go help them!" She rushed off down the hallways. Blake smiled at that before more troubling thoughts filled her head. She looked back at the ship, unease settling in her stomach. Then, she followed Ruby through the school. 

The forest was no harder to traverse than it had been last time. No Beowulves blocked their paths, and, weapons in hand, they reached the vessel. 

Up close, it was clear that his ship had been in battle. Its side was pocked full of smoking holes, and one of the rocket boosters was crushed and smoking. "Hello?" Ruby called out. "We're here to help." She knocked on the ship, then stepped back, frowning. "Uh, I don't think its made of metal."

Blake reached out and touched the ship. It didn't feel like metal. It felt more like...crystal?

An entry hatch flung off the ship, and a cloud of smoke billowed from the hole as a figure stepped out. A voice rang out, soft, and vaguely feminine. 

"Jesus H. Christ, that went poorly." The figure coughed, waving smoke from in front of her face. Which was the same orange-red color as her ship. Her hair was short and spiky, all combed neatly to one side of her face. She wore a sash of sorts, going diagonally across her chest. It covered both shoulders, and in the center was an orange diamond. Blake realized that the sash was not cloth--it was some sort of armor. Around her elbows and knees were black stripes in her otherwise orange clothing. And around her waist was a cloth that fluttered around her like a cape. She put a hand on her head, looking at the wreckage of the ship. "Yeah, that's what happens when you don't have working shields." She glared at the ship a minute before adding, "Wait, I'm the reason it didn't have working shields. Dammit."

"Uh, ma'am?" Ruby said. The woman turned to her. "Do you...need help?"

The stranger turned and surveyed her ship a second. "Hmm...nope!"

"You...sure?"

"Yes."

Ruby exchanged a look with Blake. "What are you doing out here?" Blake asked suspiciously. 

"That's a long story," the woman said, smiling. That sort of smile that makes others hate you less, but was generally used by the people you needed to hate more. Blake glared at her suspiciously. 

"What's with that look, kid?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't do anything."

"Why are you orange?" Ruby blurted out. Blake looked at her. "Sorry! I just..."

She raised an eyebrow. "Uh...I don't know, actually." She put a thoughtful hand on her chin. "Huh."

"My name's Ruby," Ruby said. 

Something about that seemed to amuse her. "Carnelian," she said, turning to look back at her ship. She ignored Ruby's outstretched hand. "Yikes. That's gonna be hell to repair. If I didn't happen to have another one, stashed on this planet. Always have backups, that's what I always say. Sometimes say, in any case."

"'This' planet?" Blake demanded. 

"There's more than one, ya know," Carnelian said with a chuckle. 

"But that implies you've been to other ones," Blake retorted. 

Carnelian held up one hand, about to argue, but then she closed her mouth. "Hmm. Yes, you're quite right about that. But in this case, the implication is true."

There was a stunned silence. "Are you...an alien?" Ruby finally asked. 

"In a broad sense of the word, to me, you are the aliens," Carnelian countered. "But, actually, to you, I am an alien."

Ruby gasped, long and slow, then rushed over, bouncing up and down around Carnelian. "Oh my gods I have so many questions!"

"Please don't."

"Why do you speak English? Did you have to learn it or is it like some sort of translator?"

"Uh...why are you speaking Gem? Did you learn it or do you have a translator?"

"So both of our languages just happen to be the same?"

"I think..."

"What weapons do you have?"

"How did you know I was armed?" Carnelian interrupted. 

"Cause it looks like you've been in a fight," Ruby said, pointing at the smoking holes in Carnelian's ship. "I just assumed you fought back."

"Actually, you're right," Carnelian said, surveying the wreckage. "If only I could pilot a ship as well as I could use my axe."

"Can I see your weapon?" Ruby said, pushing in close to Carnelian, staring with wide eyes. 

Carnelian looked down at her for a second, then, with a chuckle, said, "Why limit myself to one?"

"Blake," Ruby hissed, looking at the Faunus. "I found my person."

Carnelian reached over and rubbed Ruby's hair. "You're cute. I only wish humans had longer lifespans; it makes you so hard to get attached too."

"Come again?" Ruby said, looking back at Carnelian. 

Carnelian smiled at her--Blake was having trouble telling what kind of smile it was. "Yes, so short lived, yet so resilient and determined."

Ruby took an awkward step back. "I'm sorry?"

Carnelian just then seemed to recognize what effect her words had had on Ruby. "Oh! I'm millions and millions of years old. It's only natural for me to regard you as short lived." She smiled pleasantly. 

"Rrright." Ruby looked at Carnelian. "Um...who was it that damaged your ship?"

"Tourmaline," Carnelian said with a grimace. "That bitch has been hunting me for the last few months."

Ruby cast a worried glance at Blake. Blake's hand instinctively went to Gambol Shroud, but Ruby shook her head. Blake nodded. _Not yet,_ she thought. 

"Who is Tourmaline?" Ruby asked, trying to put up a fake smile.

"Head of the Galactic Police," Carnelian said, distractedly. "Guess I broke one too many laws. Doesn't matter that I've been trying to help them, trying to help everyone. Crime against nature, they said. But the crime was _for_ nature." She scoffed, looking furious. "I was only ever trying to help. I'm still only trying to help. But they keep coming, coming, coming." She shook her head. Then she looked at Ruby. Ruby had taken a step back. "I'm rambling again, aren't I?" 

Ruby nodded. 

"Here. You're a nice kid, with a good heart." Carnelian fished around in a pocket, then pulled out a small red diamond hooked up to a metal contraption. "It's a present," she said to Ruby's befuddled expression. She bent down on one knee, handing the diamond over. "For you."

Ruby took it. "Thanks?"

"It gets better. See that little button there? Yeah, that's the one. Push it."

Ruby gave her a curious look, then, being the innocent, trusting person she was, pushed it. A few lights began blinking on the contraption. 

"Ruby..." Blake said, pulling Gambol Shroud partway out of its sheath. 

"Hey, it's getting kinda warm," Ruby said with a smile. Then red lightning flashed, a look of alarm flashed over Ruby's face, and she disappeared in a poof of reddish-pink mist. Carnelian reached over and plucked the diamond out of the air before it hit the ground. She grinned. "It worked."


	3. Enter Carnelian

Ruby ran through the series of events that had just occurred. Carnelian had given her the gem. The gem had started flashing. Ruby had felt an odd warmth. Now she was...where was she? She could still see the forest around her, Carnelian, her ship, and a shocked Blake. But she was...in Carnelian's hand? And where were her limbs? Her arms and legs, her scythe!

She appeared to have been turned into a rock. And, if she had to guess, the gem inside Carnelian's little contraption. 

Ruby briefly wondered if this was the alien's idea of a joke. Or maybe some obscure greeting ritual, liking shaking hands with someone, or, in some formal places, bowing. But hadn't Carnelian just said, "it worked"? 

Carnelian lifted Ruby into the air, staring at her in a moderately creepy way. 

"Ruby!" Blake cried. "You...you..."

"Relax, she's fine," Carnelian said. "I just turned her into a Gem."

 _You turned me into a rock?_ Ruby wanted to scream. But she couldn't. Probably, she imagined, because she currently had no lips. 

"Into...what?" Blake pointed her sword at Carnelian. "Turn her back!"

Carnelian looked at the sword like Blake had threatened her with a Q-tip. "I don't think you quite get what I did," she said slowly. "See, if this worked, then 'Ruby'--if I'm getting the name right--no longer has to worry about getting maimed or killed, she won't age, she doesn't need food but can still eat it if she wants. And if she ever gets hurt, she'll turn into a rock like this for a little while." Carnelian showed Blake the diamond. "See?"

Blake looked at Ruby. "That's Ruby?" Blake asked. 

"Yup."

"Can I...touch her?"

"Uh...sure?"

Blake reached over and poked Ruby, who now felt incredibly awkward. Then Blake snatched the diamond from Carnelian's hands and took off running. 

_Oh...that's what she was doing,_ Ruby thought. _That's my girl._

Blake ran, ignoring Carnelian's cry of, "Wait! Stop!" She ran ahead, jumping through trees, clutching Ruby tightly. Ruby didn't know how long she ran, but when Blake stopped, she was panting, and her Aura was flickering. Several scratches covered her arms, and a branch was caught in her hair. She stepped behind a tree, then looked behind her. Then she looked back at Ruby. 

"Are...you in there?" Blake asked. "Can...you come out now?"

_I don't know how._

Blake waited for a long minute, then pulled out her scroll and called the rest of Team RWBY. 

"Blake?" Yang's voice crackled. "What's up?"

"We need backup," Blake panted. "There...attacker...I...Ruby..." She slumped against the tree, falling to the ground. 

"What happened? Where are you? Does this have something to do with the ship that crashed in the forest?" Yang said, rapid firing questions. 

"I...we're in the forest," Blake said. "There...Ruby and I went out to check out the crash, in case...anyone needed help...but she...Carnelian, she said her name was...I..." She sobbed. "It happened so fast..."

"We're coming," Yang said. "Hold strong. Uh...where in the forest are you?"

"I don't know," Blake said, wiping tears from her eyes. She looked down at Ruby again. Ruby wanted desperately to comfort her, tell her it was okay, that she was fine. But she couldn't speak, and Carnelian's definition of 'for a little while' could have been anywhere from thirty minutes to thirty years, given her thoughts on the human lifespan. "I...didn't check which direction I was running in..."

"Where'd you go?" Carnelian called out. Blake went down, hiding behind a thorn bush, eyes wide. _She's here,_ Ruby thought. Twigs snapped as Carnelian stomped through the forest. "Come out, come out, wherever you are, and please give me your friend back. I still needed her!"

"Blake? Who's that?" Yang asked. Blake hurriedly hung up, hiding her scroll, then holding her breath. Silence. Blake risked sitting up, peaking over the bush for Carnelian. Ruby was held close to her face, and could see over the bush as well. 

No Carnelian. Her tracks were fairly obvious, however. A lot broken twigs and branches. Except it suddenly stopped. At a certain point, the broken branches just stopped. Ruby would have frowned if she had a face at the moment. 

A gunshot broke the silence. Blake cried out, dropping Ruby. She grabbed her shoulder, which was now bleeding profusely. Carnelian stood over Blake, spinning a large hand-held revolver. She picked Ruby up, then an orange bubble formed around her. Carnelian tapped its top and Ruby suddenly found herself elsewhere. 

"Ruby!" Blake cried, slashing up at Carnelian. A second gunshot rang out, and pain welled up in her hand. Gambol Shroud spun to the side. Carnelian next down next to Blake. 

"I did not come here to attack you," Carnelian said quietly. The gun glowed orange and disappeared. "I came here to help. Your friend will be fine. I just need to run a few tests, then I will return her to you." She was interrupted by Blake's scroll ringing. Carnelian reached down and pressed the ignore button. "Now then. I have places to go, and I don't want anyone finding me before I leave this planet. So...stay put." 

Blake reached over to grab Gambol Shroud, but then Carnelian grabbed her by the wrist and lifted her up. She'd thankfully grabbed Blake by the hand that hadn't been shot. Whether or not that was intentional was not quite clear. She put a small bracelet around Blake's wrist and tapped a button and let go. Blake suddenly found herself suspended in the air, as the bracelet now floated. Blake immediately attempted to pry it off, even pressing the button that had activated it. Nothing worked. 

"Now then," Carnelian said. "Hang around here, will ya?" She paused. "That wasn't intentional, I really didn't mean it like that, I am sorry..."

"Give her back!" Blake shouted. "Give Ruby back!"

Carnelian looked at her. "I have told you my exact plan."

"Give Ruby back _now_ _!_ " Blake snarled. "Give me back my friend!"

"No." Carnelian shook herself, then disappeared in a flash of orange light. 

The next few minutes consisted of Blake's fruitless attempts to get the bracelet off. She struggled for almost ten full minutes. Her Aura had recovered enough that her wounds had stopped bleeding. Then she tried reaching her scroll when it started ringing again. It inevitably went to voicemail. 

Then it rang again. And again afterwards. Blake sat there, watching it, and looked up at the sky. An echoing boom filled the forest, and Blake saw a ship, exactly like Carnelian's, flying up and disappearing. 

The scroll rang again. Then, while it was still ringing, a voice called out, "Blake!" Yang's voice.

Blake called out, "Over here!"

Yang crashed through the thicket, holding her scroll. "Oh my gods! What happened?" She paused. "Wasn't Ruby with you?"

Blake couldn't meet her eyes. Instead, she looked away. "She...Carnelian...I...Carnelian took her."

Yang reached up and pulled Blake closer to the ground. Thankfully, the bracelet allowed that. Yang's eyes, a fiery red, met Blake's yellow eyes. "We will get her back," she said slowly. She grabbed the bracelet and broke it. "We will find this Carnelian person. And beat the shit out of her."


	4. Happily Ever After Postponed

Steven looked into the sky, taking a deep breath, smelling the night air. The stars were beautiful. 

"Enjoying the view?" Garnet asked with a smile. They stood on the hill overlooking the temple, staring up into the sky. 

"What's not to enjoy about it?" Steven replied. "Isn't happily ever after great?"

Garnet smiled, then stopped and looked up at the sky. "Wait for it..."

Steven looked up into the sky, where Garnet was looking. After staring intensely for a minute, Garnet relaxed. "Yeah. Happily ever after's great."

A sonic boom echoed across the town. A ship hurtled through the sky, flying directly over their heads and smashing through the lighthouse. Steven and Garnet watched the ship fly and land on the beach with a thud. The ground shook, and a dust cloud was raised. 

"I feel like we should never again say the words, 'happily ever after'," Steven said.

"Agreed," Garnet said. "C'mon. Let's go see what this is."

The ship was a bulbous triangle, with a small fin sticking out of its back, with several large boosters on its back. It didn't appear any worse for wear, which was more than could be said for the lighthouse. The sand around the ship had been heated enough to turn into glass. The ship was motionless. 

"Hello?" Garnet called out. Immediately afterwards she grabbed Steven and pulled him back. 

"What do you see?" Steven asked. He knew, of course, Garnet saw the ship, but in this case he was referring to her future vision. Garnet appeared tense. 

"A lot of different timelines," she answered. "Whoever the pilot is very chaotic and random."

A panel opened up and a Gem jumped out. "I do not remember that lighthouse being there," she stated. "Or that mountain. Or this town. Was the ocean always this close?" She glared at the water, then stuck her tongue out at it. 

"Hi there," Steven said, waving. The Gem looked at her. "Oh. Hello, hu..." She trailed off, frowning. 

"My name is Steven Universe, this is Garnet," Steven introduced. "Um...welcome to Earth!"

"You're Pink Diamond," she said. "No...you said Steven? Curious, curious, curious." She took a few steps forward, surveying Steven. "You're not a Diamond...but not a human, either."

"I'm kinda half and half," Steven admitted with a sheepish chuckle, rubbing his hair. "So, um, what brings you to Earth?"

"Oh, just a few experiments. Oh, I'm Carnelian."

"You're not a carnelian," Garnet pointed out. "Steven, look at her gem."

"A diamond?" Steven said. "Wait, a diamond?"

"Don't you two know how rude it is to stare?" Carnelian said, glaring. "I call myself Carnelian because 'Orange Diamond' is bland, unoriginal, and a mouthful; and I like the color of carnelians."

"Um...there are five diamonds?" Steven said. "Since when? Where did you...how...?"

"So you don't remember," Carnelian mused. "Otherwise you'd have remembered the 'flawless leader' White Diamond raging at me, just going on and on and on." She scoffed. "Honestly, that good for nothing, sorry excuse for stone is nothing so much as a great cosmic idiot."

"Um..."

"Anyways, how Earth? I haven't been here in almost a thousand years, and last time I was here I saw a bunch of old Gem stuff, and that was kind of curious, but, hey, wait, what are Gems doing here? This isn't a Gem planet. This isn't even anywhere near a Gem-controlled planet. At least since I last checked. And I haven't done that in a while, because White wants me dead. How is White? Is she still a stuck-up piece of--hey, what's that face for?"

"Uh..." Steven shared a look with Garnet. "Who _are_ you?"

"A scientist," Carnelian grinned. 

"What do you mean, White Diamond wants you dead?" Garnet demanded. 

"Oh, sure, focus on that part," Carnelian said. 

"Who's that?" Steven asked. He'd noticed a small orange bubble floating out and following Carnelian. "Why is she bubbled?"

"Don't worry--she's a friend of mine! I think. I liked her! Though her opinion of me is undoubtedly very low right now." She put a hand on her chin thoughtfully. "Yeah, we're buds." She reached over and tapped the top of the bubble, and it disappeared. 

"You can't go around bubbling Gems!" Garnet said. 

"Uh...I have multiple answers to that," Carnelian said. "First and foremost, I clearly can. What you mean is that I _shouldn't._ Second, would you believe me if I said that's a human?"

"It doesn't really change anything," Steven said. "If humans could be bubbled like that, you still shouldn't go around doing that. How about you unbubble her and we talk this out?"

"I have a few tests to run, then I'll release her," Carnelian said, waving Steven off. 

"Did she agree to it?" Garnet demanded. 

"...not exactly."

"Then you release her _now_ _!_ " Garnet said, jabbing a finger at her. "Era 3 is a time of peace!"

"What ever happened to Eras 1 and 2?" Carnelian asked, confused. "Wait a minute, are you a fusion? Is White okay with that? Actually, I really doubt that."

"I...ergh! Just release your captive now!" Garnet summoned her gauntlets. 

"Whoa, let's calm down," Steven began, but Carnelian cut him off. 

"Nice try, Pink-Steven, but the Gems are the most war-like race I've ever encountered. Garnet here wants a fight, as do the other Diamonds. You better get used to it." She pulled out a pair of hand axes, the edges of the blade glowing orange. "As for you, you lukewarm cup of poorly made tea, if you want a fight, come at me."

Garnet, usually the careful one, did not need anything further. She lunged, landing on the sand right in front of Carnelian with a fist raised. As Carnelian raised her axes to attack, Garnet suddenly leapt back out of range, throwing up sand. 

Carnelian frowned at her. "What was that about?" she asked. Garnet lunged again, but didn't even get to Carnelian before leaping backwards. 

"Garnet?" Steven asked, summoning his shield. 

"Ooh," Carnelian said, looking at his shield. "Nice."

"Get away from her!" Garnet cried.

Steven leapt back, landing beside Garnet. "What is it?"

"I only see a couple of futures where any of my attacks actually land," Garnet said. She was sweating. Steven had never seen her like this before--so scared. "And so, so many where she poofs me, or--or shatters--"

Ruby's love for Sapphire, and Sapphire's love for Ruby, was what made up Garnet. Steven briefly imagined looking into a nearby future and seeing Connie die before shuddering. "Well, we can get through this without anyone getting shattered! If we're lucky, we can still get through this without any more fighting!"

"Again, nice try," Carnelian said. "But the other Diamonds would just send their armies after me the moment they learn I'm here, so, a fight's inevitable."

"What did you do to make the Diamonds mad?" Steven asked. "I'm sure they'll forgive you now. I'm sure you've heard the message I sent, about peace across the universe."

"What message?" Carnelian asked, blinking. 

"My message. You know, peace and all? Era 3? No more fighting?"

"Yeah, I haven't been paying attention to anything that's happened with Gem-kind in the last ten thousand years," Carnelian said. "And as for what I did--I simply came up with a solution!"

"Solution for what?" Steven asked. 

"I've long been a fan of the organic life I've seen. It's all cute and adorable, but every organic being suffers the same problem. Mortality." She glared up at the sky. "I came up with the idea to turn organic lifeforms into Gems. The thoughts and ideas of a human, but in the undying body of a diamond." She grinned, but it didn't last long. "I proposed this idea to White, you know. She shot me down faster than I could even fully explain myself. We argued and fought. I left the smoking husk of her head, and departed into the cosmos. I've spent many years trying to make that idea a plan, and then make that plan a reality." Her smile returned. "I finally figured out how to do it. How to turn a human into a Gem. That bubbled Gem? She was a human this morning. I finally converted a human into a Gem and had the subject live. And it was so...so happy." She returned her gaze to Steven. "I have a plan. If it works, I can turn all of them--the humans on Earth, but also the humans on Remnant, and all the other organic lifeforms across the universe, too--into gems. Then everything...will be perfect."

"What do you mean, had the subject live?" Steven asked. 

"Not all experiments are successful, you know," Carnelian said, her smile fading. "But I've finally done it right, so no more people have to die."

"You killed people," Steven realized. "How many did you kill?"

"Like I kept count," Carnelian said. "They were going to die anyway. I doubt many of them would have objected if they knew how many people they helped to save."

"You kidnapped and murdered how many?" Steven asked. A numb feeling settled over him. 

Carnelian looked troubled. She started to speak, then looked at Steven. A nasty look. A predatory look. "Ah. I see. You're just like the other three."

"If they objected to _murder,_ yeah, I am," Steven replied fiercely. "You can't--"

"I can and I did," Carnelian said quietly. "They objected to my plan because they were already perfect. Why strive for perfection when you are already perfect? Why try to help others reach perfection, when all that would do is lower your own status?" she snarled. Fierce anger dripped through her words. "Really, Pink-Steven. I thought you might try to help."

"What if instead of helping everyone, you get it wrong and kill everyone instead?" Garnet demanded. 

"But I got it right," Carnelian answered. She pulled a set of keys from her gem, pushed a button on them, then returned the keys to their place. Her ship lifted into the air and flew away, but not into space. 

"What if they don't want it?"

"Like I have time to go around, asking every single human, Gem, and other alien in the universe if they want what I offer," she said. "Most of them don't even know what I'd be offering. They couldn't possibly accurately say what they want!"

"This is wrong," Steven said. "Let's think about this a minute."

"I'm done thinking about my dreams," Carnelian interrupted. "I'm done planning. I'm done thinking. I am done dreaming! The only thing that's left is the doing!" She pointed one axe at him. "And if you're going to stand in my way, I'm going to kill you."

"Garnet," Steven said. "Let's fuse!"

A light twirl later, Sunstone leapt forward, striking at Carnelian. "Yo, that is not cool!" she cried. "You cannot--" Carnelian held out one palm, and a large orange shield appeared in front of her. The symbol on this shield was of a small diamond in front of a sun, shooting out rays of light to the far edges of the shield. Sunstone's fist hit the shield harmlessly. "--do...that..." Sunstone trailed off. 

"As I said," Carnelian began, "nice." She shoved against her shield, knocking Sunstone backwards, then lunged forward with her axes. Sunstone dodged a few swings, then threw a punch. Carnelian ducked beneath it, then slashed through Sunstone's arm. Rushing forward, she slashed across Sunstone's chest and other arm, landing behind Sunstone. 

"Remember, readers," Sunstone said, "do not, under any circumstances, try this at home." Then, with a cloud of smoke, Ruby, Sapphire, and Steven all landed hard on the glass beach. 

"Okay," Steven said. "That did not go as well as I thought it would."

Ruby growled. "That's it! I'm tired of her ugly face! Come on, Sapphire, let's beat the--" A gunshot cracked through the air, and a bullet went right through Ruby's face. With a poof of red smoke, Ruby's gem landed on the beach. 

Sapphire rushed over, grabbing the gem before it hit the ground. "Ruby!"

"Bang," Carnelian said. Then she smiled and shot again. Steven leapt in front of the bullet, deflecting it with his shield. A shock ran through his arm, and his shield rang. Carnelian fired several more times. "How strong can that one shield possibly be?" she demanded. "Would you do me a favor and just die already?" An energy blast hit her face. Carnelian stumbled back with a cry, her form flickering. "What the hell?" she cried. 

"I've got your back, Steven!" Pearl cried, landing beside Steven, pointing her trident at Carnelian. Carnelian pointed her gun at her, and a whip slapped her wrist. The gun flung to the side as the whip tied around Carnelian's hand. 

"Stay," Amethyst growled. 

Carnelian gave the whip an experimental tug. Amethyst immediately sent a wave of purple fire through the whip, throwing Carnelian backwards. Carnelian the edge of the beach, ocean water splashing around her as she sat up. 

"All of you," she said. "Really? I'm only trying to help!"

"This isn't helping!" Steven cried. 

Carnelian gave him a baleful glare. "No. No, Pink-Steven. It isn't." Her revolver disappeared into her gem, and instead she pulled out a three-pointed wand with a small cage attached. 

"Is that a replicator wand?" Pearl asked. 

Carnelian pulled out a blue crystal and put it in the cage. "I've done a lot of experiments over the years. Some ended in success, but most ended in failures. This one, however, is one success I've never regretted. Ever heard of Dust crystals?" She grinned. "Since you haven't, allow me to demonstrate." She pushed a button, then threw the wand into the air as it started flashing blue. Then, a blue wave of energy expanded through the air over their heads, and hundreds of the blue crystals appeared where it passed. 

Carnelian laughed, walking backwards into the ocean. 

Steven grabbed all of the Crystal Gems close, then created a bubble around them. "I don't like this!" he cried. 

The first of the crystals hit the beach. Then exploded, sending ice shards everywhere. Dozens of other explosions detonated against the beach and Steven's bubble, throwing ice and snow all over the beach. Carnelian's retreating form disappeared beneath a cloud of snow. 

After a minute, the explosion stopped. Steven expanded and popped the bubble, then looked around over the beach. A four-foot layer of snow now covered the beach. Steven jumped on top of it, finding it solid. "Yikes," he said. "She has got some crazy tech."

"Who was she?" Amethyst asked. "Like, seriously. Some crazy Gem just comes out and poofs Garnet? Who is she?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Steven admitted. "But happily ever after just got postponed a bit."


	5. The Colors of Gems

The sun had set long ago. Blake looked around, watching the forest by the light of the broken moon. 

"Blake," Yang called up, looking at the tree Blake stood in. "We've got to stop now."

"We can't," Blake called back. "Not until we find Ruby."

"Blake, the two of us don't have night vision," Yang called up. "Can you come down here so we can talk."

Blake leapt down, lithely landing by Weiss and Yang. "What is there to talk about? Ruby has been kidnapped by an alien invader! We need to find her before Carnelian enacts whatever horrible plan she has for her!"

"Yeah, but we're running on last nights sleep and this morning's coffee," Yang said. "We can't see, we're up against a foe we know nothing about with technology we know nothing about." She put a hand on Blake's shoulder. "We are all worried about her. But we can't go on like this."

Blake blinked at Yang. "I'm...I need to go on. I can't just stop! I--" An echoing boom filled the air. A triangular ship hurtled through the trees over their heads. 

"Carnelian!" Weiss cried. 

"No," Blake said. "That's not her ship." Carnelian's ship only had one fin, on the back. This one had two wings, and two large guns mounted on its underside. And instead of being orange, this ship was half red, half blue. The ship hovered in the air over them, a large light shining down on them. 

"Who are you?" Yang cried. 

The ship hovered for a second. Blake stared it down. Then it began to fly off. 

This was, perhaps, the only clue Blake had to getting Ruby back. She still wasn't sure how she wanted to proceed with Ruby, but she knew that for anything to happen she had to get Ruby back. She leapt up into the trees, chasing the ship, leaping from branch to branch. The ship, thankfully, was moving slow, taking its time to look through the trees. Blake jumped into the air, standing on top of a tree. From this height, the world looked small. She leapt into the air and landed on top of the ship. The ship immediately stopped. 

"Where. Is. Carnelian?" Blake shouted at the ship.

The ship hovered for a minute, then a voice called out, crackling as if through a speaker, "Love, ya gotta move so I can park."

Blake blinked. "What?"

"I'm tryin' to land here!" the voice shouted. "Ya gotta move! I've been hun'in' Carnelian awhile, and I didn't make all the prog'hess I'd made by sittin' here, parked in midair, staring at some idjit girl who sat on mah ship! At least get out of mah sight, so I can park withou' knockin' no trees down!" Blake jumped onto a nearby tree, then the voice called back out, "Thank you!" and the ship began to land. 

Blake couldn't place the accent. She had absolutely no idea what was up with the accent. The voice sounded feminine, but with aliens, who could be sure? Blake climbed down the tree, jumping and landing in front of the parked ship. A hatch opened up, and a woman stepped out. She wore a casual long-sleeved shirt and jeans, but the shirt was half red and half blue. The jeans were as well, but in reverse. The woman's skin and hair also had the same color scheme going on, and she wore a reflective scarf around her neck. The scarf appeared to be made out of...crystal? 

The woman shook her head, steadying herself on her ship. Blake decided that either she was wearing large gauntlets, or her hands were that big naturally. "Now, then," she said. "You've seen Carnelian?"

Blake nodded. "She kidnapped my friend."

"Kidnapped? Good God, she's kidnappin' aga-an? God dammit, you're not shittin' me!"

"Who are you?" Yang asked, stepping into the area. It wasn't exactly a clearing, but the trees were less thick here. 

"M'name's Tourmaline," she said. "Pleased to meetch'a!"

"What the hell is up with your voice?" Yang demanded. "You sound like a sixty-year old drunken man was gargling nails while he had the flu!"

Tourmaline grimaced, then pulled a sleeve up, revealing a watch. Or something like one, as no watch Blake had ever seen had that many buttons. Tourmaline pushed several of them, a couple multiple times, then said, in a completely different tone of voice, "Alright, how's this, love?" 

"Ah...better? You at least sound like an actual person," Yang said, rubbing her hair. 

"I'm from another planet, I'm not a 'person' as you're thinking of," Tourmaline stated, pushing one last button on her 'watch'. 

"A translator of some sort?" Weiss asked. 

"What do you think it is, love, a timepiece?" Tourmaline snorted, putting her hands on her hips. "Yeah, it's a universal translator. I guess that there is a technical scientific name for it, but I don't give two shits about what said name is, and that's what everyone calls 'em!"

"Ahem," Blake said. "Can we stay on topic? Carnelian?"

"Oh, right, the bitch," Tourmaline said, looking at Blake. "Where'd ya see her, love?"

"First, stop calling me 'love'," Blake said. "Second, her ship crashed, Ruby and I went over to investigate, and she started talking."

"This story sounds about as familiar you can get," Tourmaline muttered, rubbing a hand through her hair. "Lemme guess. She started talking about how short lived humanity was, then she gave some odd contraption to this...Ruby, you said?" She checked her watch. "Wait, this isn't a Gem-controlled planet. What the hell?"

"Ruby Rose," Blake said. "Not a...a...Gem? Like Carnelian said she was?"

"Carnelian's a Gem, love, but one hated as much by her own kind as the rest of the universe," Tourmaline said. 

"And, yes, that's...um...exactly what happened." Blake glared suspiciously at Tourmaline. "How'd you know?"

Tourmaline laughed. "I've seen enough reports of her to have gotten the pattern down, love."

"Stop calling me love!" Blake snapped. 

"It's a force of habbit, lo--oh, just suck it up," Tourmaline snapped. "So where's Carnelian now?"

"I...we had a bit of a fight, but I mostly tried running away from her. She...caught me, and took...Ruby..." Blake paused, trying to keep herself from crying again. 

Tourmaline stepped over. "Kay. No need to turn on the waterworks, love. Ya gotta work with me here if we want to catch her."

Blake nodded. 

"I assume she got away after that?"

Blake nodded again. "I saw a second version of her ship leave."

"She has more than one," Tourmaline replied, taking Blake's hand in her own. "As she put it one time, 'backups never hurt anyone except your enemies'."

"How do you know her?" Blake asked, wiping a tear from her eyes. 

"Well, the bitch kidnaps people every few months, I work in the Galactic Police Force, it was bound to happen eventually, love," Tourmaline said with a laugh. 

"You laugh a lot."

"You cry a lot. One of these is worse than the other, love, you tell me which."

Blake had to crack a smile at that. "So. How do we get her?"

"There's a lot of ways I could answer that question, love," Tourmaline told her. "I have a feeling about where she went, but its not on your planet. In fact, it's roughly twelve hours to get there by my ship, and I have to spend about three hours confirming it first, so I don't waste half a days worth of time." Tourmaline grimaced. "But my ship has several beds, if you three are interested. Otherwise, you'll have quite a bit of trouble getting to Ruby."

Blake nodded. "I'm ready."

"Let's do this," Yang agreed. 

"Hang on, Ruby, we're coming," Weiss said. 

"She ain't here, love," Tourmaline told Weiss with a grin. She leapt up onto her ship. "C'mon then! Let's find your..." Tourmaline looked at Blake. "...friend? Closer, by how devastated you look?"

"We're complicated," Blake told her, following her into the ship. 

"Boy, have I been there, love," Tourmaline laughed. "Well, let's find her and stop a several-thousand year old mad scientist!"


	6. The Game is Afoot

Blake opened her eyes. She saw the bunk above her was a light shade of red. Then she remembered where she was and sat straight up. It wasn't a bunk, it was the roof. She looked around Tourmaline's ship. Everything was as she remembered. A small 'kitchen'--which mainly consisted of what Tourmaline had called a 'food replicator' and a sink, and didn't appear to have a stove or dishes. There was a generator, sitting right next to a wall covered in switches and blinking lights. And then there were two beds--one on each half of the ship. Which meant that the one on the right was red and the one on the left was blue. The same thing was true of the entire ship--everything on the right was red and everything was blue. 

Blake stepped lightly out of her bed. Tourmaline appeared to be in the pilot seat--despite having repeatedly mentioned how she preferred to let the ship go on autopilot. Blake looked at the other bed. Yang and Weiss slept, the former's hands being wrapped tightly around the latter. They looked happy. Blake retrieved Gambol Shroud from beneath her pillow, sheathed it, and strode up to the cockpit. She stepped around the ladder in the center of the long ship, leading up the exit hatch. Blake stepped up to Tourmaline. The pilot's chair was situated right in the center of the ship, and was half-red, half-blue. But there were two other chairs, one on either side and slightly behind the multicolored one. 

Tourmaline appeared to be muttering to herself. "You okay?" Blake asked, sitting in one of the spare chairs. 

Tourmaline jumped, clamping her mouth shut. "Oh! Sorry, did I wake you?"

"No," Blake said, rubbing her eyes. "How long did I sleep?"

"You slept eight hours," Tourmaline replied, tapping a button on the ship's console. Several symbols appeared, and judging from the circumstances, Blake guess it was a clock.

"And you slept?" Blake asked. 

"Fewer than that," Tourmaline said with a yawn. Then her body fuzzed for a second. 

"Are you a gem?" Blake asked. "Like Carnelian?"

"And your Ruby friend now?" Tourmaline said. 

Blake didn't answer. 

"Yeah," Tourmaline said. "To put it simply, yeah. But its quite a bit more complicated."

"What's the longer story?"

"I'm half-Gem," Tourmaline admitted. She pulled her scarf up slightly, revealing a dodecahedron crystal embedded in her throat. It was red and blue, like everything else on her ship and person. "My...mom, I guess...well, no one really knows what exactly she did, or who she was. I was just found one day, outside an important official's house. He raised me."

"So not all Gems have...well, the same Gem?"

"We don't have enough time left in the trip for me to explain everything about Gem culture, love," Tourmaline said with a laugh. "But no. From what I've heard, they're a caste society. Different Gems are different castes. Like, there are Peridots, and those are the main scientists and engineers. You've got Ruby's, which generally just act out a variety of muscle jobs, usually scouting and body guarding."

"So which one are you?" Blake asked. "Uh, sorry if that's a rude question."

"It's fine--I didn't grow up in a caste society, so I don't really worry about it too much. But from what I understand, Tourmaline's on Homeworld are way different from what I am."

"I don't follow," Blake said. 

"Well, Gems are made of light--just light centered around their actual gem. But I'm flesh and blood. A Gem embedded in flesh." She frowned, staring at the ship's canopy. "Gems also have an ability that's called 'Fusion'. Basically where they fuse together, creating a new bigger and tougher Gem while fused. I...I think I'm actually made from a Fusion, love."

"What do you mean?" Blake asked. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"My Gem appears to be a Fusion between two other Gems," Tourmaline explained. "So, when the Gems in a normal Fusion argue, the Fusion splits apart, right, love?"

"Okay," Blake said. "But what would happen in your case?"

Tourmaline didn't answer. She looked away. 

"I'm sorry; did I say something?"

"No," Tourmaline said quietly. "You're worried about your friend, love. Trying to figure out what she's gonna be like, eh?"

Blake bit her lip, then nodded. Remembering Tourmaline wasn't looking, she said, "Yeah."

"You just stepped on a few of my personal things," Tourmaline continued. "No big deal, love." 

Blake had to figure out the alien metaphor. "Sorry."

Tourmaline punched her shoulder. "Stop apologizing so much. Carnelian's not the sort to say, 'it's okay', love."

The reminder of Carnelian was, perhaps, the last thing Blake needed. She looked back out the window. "What Gem powers does Carnelian have?"

"Carnelian is not a normal Gem," Tourmaline exclaimed. "And not like I am. I don't know what she is, but she's a master scientist. She can store things in her Gem, like all Gems can. But she also has this thing where she teleports. I don't think its true teleporting--I think she's just moving at the speed of light." 

"Isn't that impossible?" Yang said groggily, rubbing her eyes. 

Tourmaline looked behind her at the sleepy-eyed blonde, then said, "Yeah, if you're not made of light. Most Gems can change their forms pretty easy. But Carnelian's been experimenting with her powers, testing her limits, for thousands of years. She can do things that other Gems don't know how to do. And she stores a lot of tech in her Gem. I'm talkin' grenades, and guns, tripwires, she once pulled a pizza out of there...anything that can be even remotely useful. When I asked her about it, she said that she's seen enough oddly specific situations where she carries a whole lot of stuff with her, just in case."

"Yikes," Yang said. "How old is she, exactly?"

Tourmaline tapped a button on her console. A colorful display lit up, and she began using a touchscreen. "Let's see...files...Gems...Carnelian...origin...at least a couple million years old."

"How do we plan on beating her?" Yang asked quietly. 

"Well, hopefully the rest of the Galactic Police will arrive by the time we get there," Tourmaline said. "So, love, we got ourselves one good thing. Which is good, cause I've never beaten her on my own. And as for beating her in general, she's quite a bit weaker than you'd think. I think its cause all her experiments messed her up somehow, love."

"That's good, then," Yang said, yawning. 

Blake stretched. "So...what do we do while we wait?"

"Plan," Tourmaline said. "Just plan, love."


	7. Your New Best Chapter

"So let me get this straight," Peridot said, rubbing her eyes. "Some mysterious Gem shows up, says she experimented on and murdered tons of people, thrashes Garnet, Steven, and Sunstone, claims to be a Diamond..." 

"Uh-huh," Steven agreed. 

"What do we do?" Lapis asked. The Crystal Gems, including Lapis and Peridot, had gathered in the Temple. Sapphire had set up Ruby on a small pillow, under a lamp. 

"She mentioned White Diamond, you said?" Pearl asked. "Hmm. Perhaps ask White Diamond about it?"

"A good idea, actually," Steven said. The Diamonds had set up a device so that Steven could call whenever he felt like talking. This was his first time using it. He waited patiently while the screen displayed a screen that simply read "LOADING."

After a minute, an all-too familiar voice said, "Well, well, well, let's take a look at the phone caller."

"Um...hi, Spinel," Steven said. He hadn't talked to Spinel since she'd tried to commit genocide against his species. 

"Hey, there, Steven!" Spinel said with a wave. "Come to _fiiiiinally_ chat?"

"Actually, there's something important I need to discus with--"

"Blue Diamond?" Spinel interrupted. 

"N--"

"Yellow Diamond? Nephrite? Emerald? Hessonite? Blue's Pearl? Yellow's Pearl? A Lapis? The Zircon that accused a god of murder and was 90% right?" She gasped, putting one hand to her mouth. " _Blue Diamond's comb?_ "

"No--no, no, and no!" Steven cried. "None of those! White--wait, that Zircon was 90% right." He paused, thinking about that a moment. "Back on track! White Diamond!"

"What about her?"

"I need to talk to her!" Steven shouted. 

"Oh! She was gonna be my next guess." Spinel gave a big, derpy grin, her tongue sticking out, before saying, "Lemme go get her." She cupped her hands in front of her mouth and shouted as loud as she could, "WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITE! STEVEN'S ON THE PHONE!"

A few heavy footsteps sounded across the phone, and Spinel was bounced into the air a couple of times. The screen rotated, revealing a smiling White Diamond. "Oh! What a nice surprise! What were you wanting to talk about? Oh, is this that Earth thing Spinel told me about--this 'small talk'?"

"Uh, I'm a afraid not," Steven said. "We were attacked by a Gem. A...a Diamond. Another Diamond."

"Carnelian?" White Diamond asked, her smile immediately fading. 

"Yes, her," Steven said. "So she is an actual Diamond? What can you tell us about her?"

"Well..." White Diamond grimaced. "What do you know?"

"Uh...she's doing experiments, trying to figure out how to turn humans into Gems."

"Go on."

"Her experiments have killed lots of people and she uses a lot of advanced tech," Steven added. "And she hates you with the burning intensity of a bazillion suns."

"That sounds like her," White said, rubbing her chin. "I'm amazed she hasn't blown herself up yet."

"What can you tell us about her?" Steven asked. 

"Eh...not much more than you already know," White said with a shrug. "I was the first Gem to come into being. Carnelian was the second. I declared myself the pinnacle of creation. She told me to fuck off."

Steven flinched. "Those words exactly?"

"Not exactly, but that's a human expression Spinel told me about that pretty much sums up what she said," White admitted. "She came to talk to me, a short time ago."

"How short?" Sapphire asked. 

"A few million years or so," White said. "She had this 'brilliant' plan to 'convert the entire cosmos into perfection'." A look of disdain crossed White Diamond's face. "Yeah, she sucks."

"So, do you know where her base is?" Steven asked. 

"Ha! Not a chance! As I said, the last time I saw her was a few million years ago! Who knows what she's been doing in that time? She's a very industrious Gem!" The Diamond shrugged. "But, uh, she's actually very tough. You might have some trouble fighting her. I'll send my ar--no, I don't have an army any more. I'll send Spinel, then bring Blue and Yellow there. Four Diamonds can certainly take out one! In the mean time, feel free to try and talk to her or stop her or whatever you planned on doing."

"I was kind of hoping I'd get a plan from talking to you," Steven admitted sheepishly. "Any, uh, tips?"

"Don't die, we love you?"

"Something helpful?"

"I have no clue," White Diamond told him. "I've told you twice, I haven't seen her in a few million years. I have no idea what she's like now."

"Alright," Steven said with a sigh. "Thanks for the help."

"You're welcome! If you hold out a little while, we'll be able to arrive to help," White said. "Bye!"

As the screen flickered off, the warp pad activated, and Spinel appeared from the beam of light, carrying a massive purple scythe. It bore an uncanny resemblance to the one she'd used in her recent attempt at genocide, but upon inspection, Steven could tell it was a different one. 

"Alright!" she cried, pumping a fist into the air. "Where's Carnelian? I have a boot with her butt's name on it, and I'm ready for kickin'!"

"Dude, we have no clue where Carnelian went," Amethyst said. 

Spinel lowered the scythe, looking dejected. "So I'm not going to be kicking her butt in the next ten minutes?"

"Not unless we get really lucky," Steven said with a light chuckle. A red light shone from behind him, he turned around in time to see Ruby reform. "What did I miss? Who's hurt? I'm so angry I'm gonna kick her--" Sapphire pulled Ruby in and kissed her, and the two fused. "Whew," Garnet said, wiping her brow. "Been awhile since that happened."

"Garnet, can you use your future vision to help us find Carnelian?" Steven asked. 

"Hmm...potentially. But as I saw before, she's very random and chaotic. It might not help as much as it could otherwise, and I'll need some time." Garnet straightened her glasses. "Give me ten minutes."

"Do I put the friggin' scythe up or not?" Spinel growled, looking angry now. 

"Probably best to put it up for now," Pearl told her. With an annoyed sigh, Spinel put away the scythe. Garnet sat on a counter, crossed her legs, and assumed a lotus position. Steven guessed it helped her to use her future vision. The next thing he did was pull out his phone, then stopped. "Wait, Jasper doesn't have a phone, does she?"

"Why the Stars are you calling Jasper?" Peridot demanded, spinning on Steven. 

"Cause out of all the Gems I know, she's the only one who's been doing combat training since Era 3," Steven said. "And besides. She can't possibly object to defeating an enemy of the Diamonds, can she?"

"For a time, Steven, she _was_ an enemy of the Diamonds," Amethyst pointed out. 

"Lapis, you okay with this?" Peridot asked. 

Lapis Lazuli rubbed her arm awkwardly. "Well, uh, she hasn't really changed, I don't know if we can trust her...but if Steven's willing to get her to help, I am, too! As long as she stays a minimum of ten feet away from me," she added. 

"Well, I'm not gonna let Lapis one-up me here! I'm willing, too! Call Jasper, Steven!" Peridot cried, pointing at Steven dramatically. 

"As I just said, I don't think she has a phone," Steven replied, looking at his own phone. "So I'll have go out and talk to her..."

"I'll do it," Lapis interrupted. 

"Uh, Lapis, you sure?" Steven asked. He briefly remembered back to Lapis and Jasper's time fused as Malachite. And then seeing Malachite and Alexandrite fight. He suppressed a shudder. Jasper had not been good to Lapis. Steven may have been okay with her being around, but he doubted that Lapis was. 

"It should be a big help if I can finally make it through one conversation with her," Lapis admitted. "Cause, y'know, Malachite."

Garnet fell off the counter. Steven rushed forward, helping her up. "Garnet! What happens?"

Garnet grabbed Steven by his shoulders. "We must stop Carnelian," she said. Her glasses had fallen off, and he saw her eyes filled with panic. "We have to."

"Why? What does she do?"

"In every future where we fail to stop her, everything on Earth, organic and Gem, dies. And even in some futures where we do stop her." Garnet stumbled backwards, hitting the counter. "Everything dies."

"I'll get Jasper," Lapis said immediately. With a determined sigh, she spread her wings and flew out the door. 

Steven had told her the directions to Jasper's cave once. Perhaps as an invitation, perhaps as a warning. Knowing Steven, probably the former, but Lapis had taken it as a warning. Of where not to go.

Except now she was headed there. Why? Why the actual hell was she going back to Jasper?

Lapis spotted the cave, and landed. Given how fast she could fly, the only reason it had taken so long was because of her own tension. 

She landed on the bare dirt. She surveyed the area around the cave--Jasper had completely cleared it of every plant and animal. Except, notably, for one piece of grass. Then Lapis saw exactly why Steven had wanted to get Jasper's aid. 

Jasper sat on top of a massive pile of boulders, hefting an even larger boulder into the air repeatedly. Almost in a bored fashion. A pebble slid away from Lapis' foot, clattering against a rock. Without looking up, Jasper called out, "What is it this time, Steven?" She sounded like she wanted to be mad at Steven for disturbing her peace, but just couldn't make herself mad at him at that moment. 

Lapis could relate. 

"Uh, it's not Steven," Lapis said. At the sound of her voice, Jasper dropped the boulder. Of course, it immediately hit her in the face with a loud _thwack._ Jasper threw it aside, jumping up and turning on Lapis. The two stared at each other for a long minute. "Um..." Lapis finally said. "There was an attack."

"An attack?" Jasper said, frowning. "What happened?"

"A Gem calling herself Carnelian attacked," Lapis explained slowly. She knew exactly what to say--why was she talking so slowly? "She's...actually a Diamond, I guess? She, uh, is..." 

Jasper jumped, landing on the dirt. "Was her ship the orange one that passed overhead thirty minutes ago?"

"I don't know? Steven said it was an orange ship..."

"Enemy to Homeworld?" Jasper asked. 

"According to Garnet, failing to stop her results in the death of every human and Gem on Earth," Lapis said. "Earth is technically Homeworld's territory. So, yeah. Enemy of Homeworld."

A grin split Jasper's face. "Finally." Then she looked at Lapis. "Uh...was that all?" 

"It was nice to finally have a conversation where neither of us are trying to kill or imprison the other?" Lapis added. 

Jasper paused a minute, then nodded. "Yeah. The orange ship went off that direction. If we move fast, we can probably catch up with this Carnelian pretty quickly. You said she was a Diamond?"

"Rogue Diamond," Lapis stressed. 

"This is gonna be tough," Jasper said. She broke into a run.

"I'll catch up!" Lapis blurted out. Jasper stopped and looked at her. An odd look. Then she nodded and continued. Lapis, meanwhile, pulled out her phone. A gift from Steven. One tap later, she was on the phone with Steven as she flew through the air over Jasper's head. "We're heading after what we think is Carnelian," Lapis explained. "Over north of Jasper's cave."

"We'll catch up!" Steven's emphatic voice replied. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Lapis said. Surprisingly, it was the truth. Jasper had changed--not much, but a little. Just enough, perhaps, for Lapis to tolerate her presence. 

She still hated Jasper. But she no longer felt the burning desire to run away whenever someone mentioned Jasper. Which was good enough for now.


	8. Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder

The strange ship sat outside a small, rotting woodland cabin. Jasper assumed it was Carnelian's ship and hut. She surveyed the target, thinking. What should her next move be now? For once, perhaps something subtle. She still didn't know anything about this Carnelian person--other than the fact that she was apparently tough. So perhaps she could sneak in and--

"ALRIGHT THEN, LADY! OPEN UP!" Lapis shouted at the top of her lungs. Several sprays of water collided with the crumbling hut, smash wood to pieces. Surprisingly, much of it remained standing. 

"So much for the stealthy approach," Jasper muttered. She walked over, through what was left of the doorway, and into the hut. A crumbling bed. The remains of a nightstand. 

A metal hatch into a not-so-secret basement. "Gotcha," Jasper said quietly. 

"Who are you talking too?" Lapis asked. 

Jasper didn't answer. Instead, she stomped over and grabbed the entry hatch, trying to tug it open. It was locked, of course, and a strange orange diamond symbol appeared over it when she touched it. "Okay," she said. "That's new." Lapis stretched out a hand, and water leapt into the room, slicing the ground around the hatch. The hatch then fell down the staircase that had been beneath it. "Nice work," Jasper said, jumping down the staircase. 

A long staircase. Long enough to where Jasper was beginning to wonder if this Carnelian person had even heard Lapis' outburst. When she finally got to the bottom of the staircase, there was another door. This one, however, wasn't locked, so Jasper opened it. 

There was a long hallway on the other side. A walkway went right through the room, with blinking red lights on its side. Lining the edges of the hallway were tall glass containers, each one with a single blinking red light on the inside roof. Jasper stopped besides the first pair of such containers. "What's in these?" Lapis asked. 

A hand reached up and thudded against the glass. Or at least, it was part of a hand. Bones showed beneath a lack of skin, and patches of it were made out of light. The hand was connected to a molten pile of flesh, with a single, cracked gem stuck in it. "Kill me," a disembodied voice whispered. 

"Kill me," a second voice whispered from a nearby container, another hand thumping the glass. Throughout the room, hands reached up and banged on their containers, chanting, "Kill me," in quiet voices. 

"Oh, stuff a sock in it!" a new voice snarled. A thud sounded from up along the hallway, around a corner, and the voices stopped. Jasper shuddered, looking at the glass containers. Lapis was horrified. Jasper was sickened. Jasper walked down the hallway, listening to the voice continue speaking. "Ugh! They just never shut up, do they? I mean, they're in eternal pain and all, but still, ya can shut up for five minutes, you know what I mean?" A bluish light flickered with sparking sounds, casting a shadow on the wall ahead. The shadow of a woman hunched over something. "They're can't really think, in any case, so, I mean, what the hell? You're a steadily decomposing pile of flesh, and you still have to fuck up some random strangers day? Like, yeesh. People call me rude, you know that? And then these ass hats..." 

Jasper stepped around the corner. An orange Gem sat over a desk, using a blowtorch on a small spherical device. She had a magnifying glass over one eye, and a small red diamond sat in an orange bubble right next to her. A television with a cracked screen sat beside her, and still more of the glass containers. 

"I take it you're Carnelian?" Jasper said.

"I take it you don't know how to knock?" Carnelian countered. 

"What have you been doing?" Lapis demanded. "What is all this?"

"Not every bullet hits its mark," Carnelian explained. "Not every experiment ends in a success. These are the organics that I couldn't turn into Gems. The ones I failed to help." She didn't look up from her work, continuing to blowtorch the device. 

"How could this be helpful in any way?" Lapis demanded. 

"This wasn't what I was aiming for," Carnelian said. " _That_ is what I was aiming for." She pointed at the bubbled diamond. "Say hello to Ruby Rose--I do believe she is actually conscious right now. If she hasn't fallen asleep."

"You need to give us the Gem you kidnapped and stop this," Lapis said. 

Carnelian grabbed Ruby's bubble and tossed it to Lapis, who barely managed to catch it before it fell to the ground. "I already confirmed what I was hoping for. I did intend to make a straight beeline for Remnant, to return her to her home, but with Pink-Steven interfering in my plans, I'm afraid I no longer have time for that."

"Stop...whatever this is that you're doing," Jasper ordered, pointing at the nearest glass container. 

"No," Carnelian said. She set the blowtorch aside, and put away the sphere in her gem. Then she put the magnifying glass down to the side and looked up at Jasper. "I am going to set up my tower. It will defend me and protect me while I activate my invention. In twenty-four hours, midnight tomorrow, it will activate. All organic lifeforms in the entire universe will be converted into Gems. I will be the hero who cured death."

"You're being pretty open with your master plan," Lapis said with a raised eyebrow. 

"Because I have nothing to hide," Carnelian said, standing up. "I am the hero, the knight in armor. I have fought for millions of years against the very concept of death, and I have almost won. I will finally get what I've been striving for for so long. I will win. And all of the Diamonds, all of the 'Galactic Police', every single self-righteous jackass with a God complex that has ever opposed me will have lost." Carnelian let that hang in the air. "What am I gonna do that I could possibly want to hide?" She pulled out her weapons, two hand axes. Then, she stuck them together by the handles, which extended. The end result was a long staff with an axe head at each end, both facing a different direction with the edges glowing a faint orange. 

_A fight,_ Jasper thought with a grin. Fighting was what she lived for. She'd come out of the ground fighting, and she fully intended to go back into the ground fighting. She rushed Carnelian, summoning her helmet. 

Carnelian's axe hit her first in the chin, stopping her charge. As she attempted to right herself, the axe hit her in the shoulder, cutting through the arm. As Jasper stumbled back, she threw a punch at Carnelian. Carnelian stepped aside and her next blow was simply to ram Jasper's chest with the head of her axe. Jasper slid backwards, ramming into Lapis, who fell over. Jasper stood up straight, fists in front of her, rolling her shoulder. Lapis stood up and stretched out her hands. Metal piping that had evaded Jasper's attention buckled and burst, and water spewed at Carnelian. Carnelian blocked with her axe heads, evaporating the water. Then she charged, attacking Jasper. Jasper stepped back out of range, then stepped in, grabbing Carnelian's axe by the handle. Carnelian looked surprised, and Jasper shoved her backwards, fighting to take away the pole-arm. Then, she rammed her face into Carnelian's. 

Jasper had once rammed her head into a mountain. The difference between now and then was that this time, her face was the loser. She staggered backwards, vision blurred, pain ringing through her gem, and only realizing ten seconds later that she'd let go of the axe. 

Carnelian appeared, stunned, fortunately, so Jasper started to continue attacking. Then she noticed that Carnelian's face had blurred, losing form for a solid thirty seconds before returning to normal. "God, that's a first," she said, rolling her jaw. "No one's ever tried that one before."

Jasper threw a punch. The axe blade spun over her head, and she aborted her attack to block. The axe cut through her arm and embedded itself in Jasper's head. 

And once again, everything went black as she lost consciousness. 

Lapis managed to catch Jasper before she hit the ground. But she was now juggling two poofed Gems, and there was no more water left in the room. Her wings were left to block Carnelian's attacks as she backed away, back down the curve and down the hallway. Lapis turned and broke into a run, flying up the staircase and out the hatch. 

Which is when a familiar pain set in with the crack of a gunshot. Lapis fell from the air, hitting gravel, knowing her gem had been cracked. She didn't cry out--unfortunately, this pain had been known to her once already. She struggled up, holding Jasper. The bubble had popped, leaving Ruby sitting on the gravel. The diamond, thankfully, didn't crack, but didn't reform, either. 

"Now then," Carnelian said, dismissing her weapons. "You just stay there. That bullet wasn't fatal, but it'll hurt like hell if you try fighting." She walked past Lapis, towards her ship. 

Lapis was pissed, though. She ignored the pain. She put Jasper on the ground, stood up, and lifted her hands. 

Trace amounts of water filled the ground. An underground river sat, miles below them. Clouds above them contained water. Compared to lifting the Earth's ocean into space, this was _easy._

Water spiked through Carnelian's ship. The vessel was lifted into the air, massive spikes of water shooting through it. Then it exploded, and pieces of metal scattered the surrounding woods. Carnelian stared up at the massive cloud of smoke in the air as the wreckage of her ship settled to the ground. 

"You didn't stop me, you know," Carnelian said slowly. "You just annoyed me." She turned and glared at Lapis. "Now, now, I'm trying to save everyone, and here you are, being the world's biggest jackass, trying to stop me." She gave an annoyed chuckle. "Bitch."

She summoned her gun, pointing it at Lapis' head. "That was rather pointless, wasn't it?"

Lapis stretched out her hands to the side. "Go on then. Shoot me now, will ya? Make this quicker for us both." She'd already accepted that she'd die eventually. It might actually be less bad than the other things she'd been through. 

"Okay then. Request grant--" Something fast collided with Carnelian, Gravel flying into the air as she slid backwards, turning and pointing her gun at her new opponent. 

A smallish girl, in a red hood and black dress, holding a massive crimson scythe. Her skin was red, and embedded in her chest, having poked a hole in her shirt, was a red diamond. 

She stared at her hands. "Thank the gods! I have arms and legs again!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter was not finished, it was a draft that I mistakenly posted. Sorry for that!


	9. The Rose's Thorns

Ruby rotated, staring herself up and down. She was taller than she remembered. Not much, just slightly. She'd always wanted to be taller. And her hair was longer. Slightly longer, and just slightly poofier. More like Yang's? She spun her scythe around. She'd just summoned it when she'd reformed--something she wouldn't have known about had Carnelian not spent a long time detailing all the highlights of being a Gem. Thankfully, that meant that Ruby knew everything she needed to know about her new life. Presumably, that was what Carnelian had been intending. 

Ruby was still pissed, though. She hefted Crescent Rose, pointing it at Carnelian. 

"In case you were about to ask, that _was_ my backup ship, so I don't have another one," Carnelian told her, putting away her gun. "You're gonna have to wait a while if you want me to get you home."

Ruby didn't lower her own gun. "Not gonna fight me?" she asked. The strange Gem--she thought that's what the blue girl was--looked at her, confused. "The name's Ruby Rose," Ruby introduced. 

"Lapis Lazuli," the other replied. She reached down and picked up a small yellow gem off the ground, then fell forwards, groaning in pain. 

"If I shoot everyone I'm trying to help, no one's gonna live to benefit, are they?" Carnelian said. She turned around and began walking off. 

"What if I fight you?" Ruby pointed out. 

"Then I will kill you," Carnelian said, without hesitation. She shook herself, then disappeared in a flash of orange light. Ruby pointed the gun where she'd last seen Carnelian for a minute longer, then dismissed Crescent Rose. It disappeared, but she knew she could retrieve it from her gem at a moments notice. 

...Gods, that felt weird. Having a gem. She reached up and poked it. She felt the touch from her gem. Did it have feeling receptors? What were those even called? Ruby walked over to the Lapis Gem. "Uh, you okay?"

"No, but a friend should be arriving any minute now," Lapis said without getting up. 

"You have friends coming?" Ruby asked. 

"Yeah. Steven and Peridot and a bunch of others I care significantly less about," Lapis said. "Steven also has healing spit, so he can fix my gem."

Ruby leaned over, staring at Lapis' gem. It had a large crack in it, spiderweb white cracks spread all over it. A small bullet sat embedded in Lapis' skin. Was it skin? Ruby couldn't tell. "Do you need me to help with anything?"

"Could you remove the bullet?" Ruby carefully reached over, plucked the bullet out, winced when Lapis groaned again, and held the bullet up to see. An odd shaped one--vaguely circular, but with one side having a small spike sticking off it. Orange lightning crackled along it. "Anything else?" Ruby asked. 

"No," Lapis replied. 

Without another word, Ruby flopped over onto her back. "I haven't slept in twenty-four hours. But Gems don't get tired, do they? _We_ _?_ Gods, that's gonna get old quickly..."

"So...are you a human?"

"Was, I guess," Ruby said. She stared at the night sky. It was a cloudy one, and she couldn't see many stars. She did see some unfamiliar constellations. "I am a Gem now."

"How is it?"

"I kinda wish she'd asked first," Ruby said. "Especially as it could have killed me, or I could have ended up like..."

_"Kill me."_

Ruby didn't finish the sentence. Lapis reached over and put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "It'll be okay." 

"Not for the guys down below," Ruby said quietly. "That's...really damn messed up." She bit her lip. She normally didn't curse. But she continued. "And I guess if I do go to sleep eventually, I'll see those guys in my nightmares."

"I still have the occasional nightmare about when I was trapped in a mirror," Lapis admitted. "But I do believe those things are gonna show up in some future nightmares."

"You were trapped in a mirror?" Ruby asked. 

Lapis nodded. "And I also spent some time in a fusion, trapping myself and Jasper at the bottom of the ocean. But you probably don't know what a fusion is, do you?"

"Carnelian explained it," Ruby said. "But I do think I'm just gonna stick to hugging for a while."

Lapis laughed quietly. "So, are you from around here?"

"I grew up in Patch, but I currently live in the dorms at Beacon Academy." Ruby paused. "It's...on another planet, I guess." _Am I ever going to get back?_ she wondered. She really wanted to. She wanted to get back to Yang and Weiss and...

And Blake. She loved Blake. Blake felt the same, but was too scared of past hurts to act on that feeling. Where did that put Ruby? 

_Awkward,_ she decided. "Hey, um, could you give me some advice?"

"Sure. On what?"

"Relationships."

"...I think I'm about the last person to be giving anyone relationship advice," Lapis replied after a second. 

"But I need help right now, and of the only two other people that I know on this planet, one is a psycho serial killer and the other is unconscious," Ruby said, sitting up and looking over at Lapis. "I think I'll take my chances."

"Well...okay. What in specific is it that's wrong?" With a pained grunt, Lapis sat up as well. 

"Okay, so...I like Blake, she's my friend. And she likes me, too. But...her last relationship...apparently the guy she dated wasn't nice to her? And she was treated badly, I guess." Ruby tapped two of her fingers together. "And she...thinks that if she starts a relationship with me...that it'll end the same way. She said it was all...'too familiar'."

"It sounds like you don't really understand what she's thinking," Lapis said. 

"I don't!" Ruby exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air. "I don't understand! I don't know why she says that she knows I'm different from this Adam guy, but then says she doesn't want to kiss me because she's worried I'll be like him! I don't understand at all!"

"Then tell her that," Lapis said. "I've kinda been in her position, actually."

"You have?"

"Abusive partners are a lot more common than you might think," Lapis said with a sad smile. "But I suppose the main difference in our two situations is that in my case, both of us were the abusive partner."

"Eh?" 

"I was just as bad to Jasper as Jasper was bad to me," she continued. "But, in your case, I suppose you just...tell her how you feel. Tell her that you don't understand it."

"I don't feel like that will end well," Ruby admitted. 

"Well, if you don't tell her how you feel, it'll just be awkward and tense until she finds out anyway," Lapis said with an apologetic smile. 

"Okay then," Ruby conceded. A yellow light filled the air around them, and the second Gem reformed. "I'm back!" she cried. "C'mon! Where's Carnelian? I'll kick her--" Lapis thrust her hand into the air, and the yellow Gem was thrown away by a stream of water. Ruby looked up at the stream of water. "Where'd that come from?" she asked. 

"Sorry!" Lapis called out. "Reflex!"

The other Gem stood up, brushing dirt off her shoulder. "Where's Carnelian?"

"She escaped," Lapis said. 

"Hi," Ruby said. "I'm--"

"Don't care," the other said gruffly. 

"You okay, Jasper?" Lapis asked. 

"As if you care that much," Jasper muttered. She looked around, then picked up a piece of shrapnel from the ground. "You broke her ship?"

"Yeah," Lapis said. She looked up, staring into the nearby woods. "Steven?" she called out. A smallish figure stepped out from behind a tree. "Lapis! You okay?" Steven, as Ruby guessed he was, was followed by more Gems. 

"Carnelian got away," Lapis continued. "But I met the Gem she captured."

It took Ruby a minute to realize Lapis was talking about her. "Hello!" she said with a wave. "I'm Ruby Rose!"

"Wait, that's your actual name?" Steven said, rubbing his head. "That's gonna get confusing quickly."

"How so?" Ruby asked, frowning. "Not as if their are many other Rubys or Roses."

Steven looked like he wanted to debate that. "Lapis, Jasper, are you okay?"

"Jasper seems fine, but my Gem got cracked," Lapis explained. 

Steven's immediate response was to lick his hand. Upon seeing Ruby's revolted expression, he apologized. "Sorry. It's never not gross when I do this." Then he stood behind Lapis and touched her Gem. Lapis shuddered, looking just as disgusted as Ruby felt, then stood up. "Thanks," she said. 

"No problem," Steven said with a grin. "Now. We just need to find Carnelian." He paused, then looked at Ruby. "Uh..."

"I'm gonna help you find her," Ruby told him. Maybe she would get back home later. But for now, Carnelian needed to be stopped. 


	10. Ladybug

"Yo, Blake, you need anything?" Yang asked. 

"I'm fine," Blake lied quickly. When Yang raised her eyebrows, she corrected herself, "I don't need anything."

Yang pushed a button on the food replicator, then walked over and sat on the bed beside Blake. "Besides Ruby?"

"You had to bring that up," Blake muttered. 

Yang patted Blake's shoulder. "We'll get her back."

"But what if..."

"Stop right there," Yang said, holding up one hand. "You're not gonna get anywhere with 'what ifs'. I'd have never done anything besides sit around on my couch if I got stumped by the 'what ifs'. We're not 'probably' going to get Ruby back--we 'are' going to get Ruby back. Got it?"

Blake sighed. "It's not that easy."

"Trust me, I wish it were," Yang said with a chuckle. The replicator dinged, indicating, Blake assumed, that Yang's meal was ready. "We're going to be landing soon, Tourmaline says. Then, it's find Carnelian, find Ruby, stop the former and rescue the latter."

"It's most likely not going to be that easy," Weiss interrupted. "From what Tourmaline said, Carnelian is hundreds of years old."

"Y'know, while everyone is upset about all this, let's just pretend for five fucking seconds that it's that easy," Yang burst out, throwing her hands into the air. 

A light laugh escaped from Tourmaline's lips. "Yeah, it's gonna be hard. But we can probably do it. From my experience, Carnelian's not yet mastered combat, loves."

Blake sighed. "I...I miss Ruby."

Everyone looked at her, so Blake went on. "She always had a quick, clever comment. A bright side that I couldn't see. I've never seen her get angry, even when facing people like Roman Torchwick."

"She's...your girlfriend, right, love?"

"It's complicated. But, yeah, we both like each other."

"Hmm..." Tourmaline's lips drew into a fine line. "Sorry. My condolences. I didn't know."

"Why do you say that?"

"Love, I believe I've mentioned already...most people don't survive Carnelian's experiments. It sounds like Ruby did survive, physically, but...well, just be prepared, love."

"For what?"

"I don't know. But...she may yet still be dead or dying."

"Which just makes stopping Carnelian all the more important," Weiss said. "So, even if Ruby...doesn't come back..." She paused a minute, then continued. "...we'll still have stopped Carnelian, so she can't hurt anyone else."

A light rumble spread throughout the ship. "Welcome to Earth, loves," Tourmaline said quietly. "Now, how quickly we find Carnelian depends upon how active she's--" Her console began beeping rapidly. "Well okay then. Very active." Tourmaline pushed a few buttons, then grabbed a small sphere embedded in the console. The ship started moving again as a city came into sight through the window. "Accessing news channels now. What have you been doing, Carnelian?"

A voice crackled over a speaker. _"--Beach City has now been completely evacuated, and the residents of Little Home-school have fled as well,"_ a news reporter said. _"Local hero Steven Universe proclaims that they're on the hunt for a homicidal Gem calling herself 'Carnelian'. Whereas her exact whereabouts are unknown, it is known that she is somewhere in the vicinity of Beach City. Be warned--she is armed and incredibly dangerous."_

A bullet went through Tourmaline's ship, going right through the engine and going out the roof.

"Unknown my ass," Tourmaline muttered. "Action time, loves!"

The ship landed--none too gently--on top of what appeared to be pizza parlor of sorts. Tourmaline simply punched the hatch, ripping it off the ship as she leapt out, followed by Blake, Weiss, and Yang. 

Carnelian stood on the building across the street, setting aside a large gun. 

"You have one chance to surrender," Tourmaline called out. "Any resistance at all and you will be killed. Do you understand?"

Carnelian answer was making the gun disappear in a flash of orange light and pulling out two pistols and opening fire. 

They leapt off the parlor, evading the bullets as the four split up. Blake opened fire with her pistol, but the shots went wide. Yang fired a shotgun blast from her gauntlets, blasting huge chunks off the roof Carnelian stood on. Carnelian leapt off, landing on the road, swapping the pistols to axe mode. 

Weiss was the first to attack her. She slashed at Carnelian's head, but the Gem ducked aside and leaned in, going for Weiss' face. Weiss parried and attacked again, but Carnelian dodged again and struck Weiss with her boot. Weiss slid backwards, but was relatively unharmed. 

"Give me back my sister!" Yang shouted, dropping down on Carnelian with a punch. Carnelian jumped aside, then said, "You know, we're really not enemies here."

Yang's reply was to throw several punches at Carnelian. Carnelian ducked aside, but then Blake stabbed her shoulder from behind. 

Carnelian cried out in pain, leaping away, her form flickering. 

"I'm only going to say this once," Blake snarled. "Give me back my girlfriend."

Carnelian blinked. "...are...are you still talking about the one in red?"

"Yes! I am talking about Ruby Rose! An innocent girl you kidnapped! She is beautiful and brave and kind and loving! And she is a million times the hero you claim yourself to be!" Blake cried, pointing Gambol Shroud at Carnelian. 

"Uh...Blakey?" Yang said. Blake looked at her, then to where Yang was pointing. Right at Ruby, who had been standing behind Blake. Her skin was red, she was just slightly taller, and her hair was bigger and fluffier, more like Yang's, not to mention the glowing red diamond now seated in Ruby's chest. But it was Ruby. 

Blake tackled her, embracing her in a hug. "Ruby!"

"Ack!" The two collapsed to the ground. "Blake! I'm...glad to see you, too!"

Blake kissed her. Long and hard, a feeling almost like a static shock running through her. When the kiss finally ended, Ruby looked at her, confused. "I'm getting mixed signals here, Blake."

Blake smiled. "I love you."

"Well isn't that sweet," Carnelian said dryly, her arms hanging loosely. "Yay. You saved the universe. Good frikkin' job. Oh wait, you did SHIT."

Blake stood up, then helped Ruby to her feet. "She's the worst," Ruby said. "Oh, and I made some new friends! These are...uh...Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl! And Steven!"

"Nice to meet you," Garnet said. "But formal introductions will have to wait."

"Oh, good, you're finally doing something," Carnelian said. "I was beginning to wonder if I was going to die of boredom before you took me down."

"Gods, I hate her," Blake muttered. 

"Ladybug?" Ruby suggested with a grin at Blake. 

Blake hefted her sword. "We take her down together." The two rushed Carnelian, running side by side. And as they ran, a red light shone. 

"Ha ha! Fuck!" Carnelian cried. Then a tall figure slammed into her, throwing her backwards into a car, which was smashed. 

"We're taking you down," a strange voice said. Ruby and Blake were gone. Instead, there now stood a tall woman with a red dress. She carried a massive staff, with a long blade at each end, and long ribbons blowing out. She had long sleeves, and a black ribbon tied around her right arm. Two fuzzy cat ears poked out from a mess of black hair. 

"Wait a minute," she said, tapping her chin. "Something feels..." She looked herself up and down. "Ruby? Blake? What the hell just happened? Oh, wait! I know this one! Tourmaline mentioned it! Fusion, she said? Yeah, Carnelian mentioned it, though mostly in passing..."

"What the fuck?" Yang burst out. "What the fuck just happened?"

"Fusion," Tourmaline said. "I believe I mentioned this, but, I didn't go into much detail. It looks like Ruby and Blake fused."

"So that's what Ladybug looks like," Garnet said, straightening her glasses. "Well then. Let's finish Carnelian!"

Carnelian stood up, her form flickering. She'd been cut in half at the chest. But--her gem was in two pieces as well. Carnelian was shattered. 


	11. My Broken Heart

"Whoa," Ladybug said. "Uh, what?" She glowed red, and Ruby and Blake fell to the ground with two thuds. 

Carnelian's two halves reconnected, the gem shards reattaching themselves. With a careful look, Steven could tell that it was still two pieces. "Carnelian?"

"It just so happens when you break the laws of nature, a few unintended things might break," Carnelian elaborated. She was looking down, and Steven couldn't see her eyes. She breathed out. "I played with my Diamond powers. I played with the very concept of being a Gem. Studying the science. Doing the math. But I was the only test subject available. On the bright side, I survived. Barely, but I lived."

"How are you still alive?" Pearl said, flabbergasted. "Once your gem was that damaged, you should have died! Then and there!"

"I don't know. Whether by trick of fate or will of God, I don't know," Carnelian said. "But you did evacuate all the civilians. So I don't need to worry about accidentally hurting them." She pulled out a familiar-looking device from her gem, along with a red crystal. 

"Another replicator?" Steven said at the same time Ruby said, "Fire Dust?"

Ruby looked at him. "Did you say replicator?"

Last time Carnelian had used one of those devices, it had resulted in a metric ton of ice being dropped on Steven's head. But Ruby had said 'fire'--which would be a lot worse. "Pearl!" he cried. The two fused, and Rainbow Quartz pointed their umbrella at Carnelian, who threw the replicator into the air. "I do believe," Carnelian laughed, "that the term is 'bomb voyage'." A psychotic laugh, a predatory grin. Carnelian was legitimately trying to help, but she needed help more than she needed to give it.

The air above them filled with the red crystals--fire dust. 

"Under my umbrella!" Rainbow Quartz cried. Ruby used her Semblance--if they remembered the name correctly--to rocket Blake over, beneath the shield, which didn't stop Blake from trying to be a hero and using herself as Ruby's shield. 

"Get back here!" Tourmaline cried. She began charging after Carnelian, but Yang jumped over and grabbed her. "Wait!" Weiss leapt in front of both of them and stabbed her rapier into the ground. A shield of ice spread out from the sword and over their heads in a dome. 

Then the Dust hit. Everything exploded--Fish Stew Pizza, the Fryman's business, the road around them. Rainbow Quartz quickly followed Weiss' lead and changed their shield to a bubble, after the first piece of flying debris hit Blake. 

"Oh my gods, Blake, are you okay?" Ruby cried, turning Blake to get a look at her lover's shoulder. A nasty cut was left where the stone debris hit. 

"I'm fine," Blake said. "Just a scratch, is all..."

"Steven!" Ruby said, turning to Rainbow Quartz. The Pearl in them wanted to correct her, but the Steven in them decided to just say, "Yes?"

"Can you use your healing-thing while fused?"

"Of course," Rainbow Quartz said, licking their spare hand. Seeing Blake's revolted face, they said, "Believe me, it's just as weird healing with it as it is being healed with it." They touched the saliva-coated hand to the cut, and the skin instantly reconnected and repaired itself. 

"You even topped off my Aura," Blake said, sounding alarmed. "But...ew."

"Great! And sorry," Quartz said with a chuckle. "I must admit, there are less embarrassing ways to heal people, but I don't have access to any of them! At least, none of the instantaneous ones. Because sometimes, you need to just make a full bird nest, ignoring all the sticks."

"I'm sorry?"

"Eh, forget it," Rainbow Quartz said, dismissing the bubble. Fire dust had stopped falling. But all of the surrounding buildings were on fire--what was left of them, anyway.

"Oh dear," Quartz sighed, shaking their head. "That will simply not do. I'll have to spend a long time rebuilding--but oh! Carnelian is still out there!" The two unfused, and Pearl's first action was to wipe her hand on her pants leg with a shudder. 

Weiss' ice shield exploded, and a furious Tourmaline stepped out, surveying the carnage. "Dammit! I could have gotten her."

"I didn't want to be the person to sit back and let you burn to death," Weiss cried, following her out. "You could have died!"

"No fire is gonna hurt me, love" Tourmaline growled. 

"Hey, we saved your butt," Yang snapped, jabbing a finger at Tourmaline. "Stop complaining."

"I didn't need saving. I needed to stop Carnelian."

"Enough!" Ruby exclaimed. Everyone looked at her. "Just...stop arguing! We can all agree that she needs to be stopped. Let's focus on that part, shall we?"

Blake grinned, kissing Ruby's cheek. "That's my Ruby."

Ruby looked at her. "Okay, we need to talk. Are we...a couple now?"

"After how close I came to losing you, I don't want to be too afraid to risk getting attached," Blake said, leaning on Ruby. "But, uh, let's stick to kissing, and leaving the 'fusion' stuff alone."

"Agreed," Ruby said without hesitation. "Come on. What's our next move in finding Carnelian?"

"This time, she found us, love," Tourmaline said, putting one hand on her hip. "Other than that, I have no idea how to find her, now that she's wrecked my ship."

"My future vision is rather limited when it comes to her," Garnet said. "She is unhinged. There are so many random things she could decide to do that I can't predict what her next move is gonna be."

"Let's all meet up at the Temple," Steven said. "I'm sure we can all think up what to do, with all of us having good seating."

The rest of them stood in the temple, along with a few other Gems--Lapis and Jasper, and two more called Bismuth and Peridot. Ruby and Blake, however, sat on the balcony, only half-listening to the conversation going on below. 

"So..." Ruby said, kicking her legs over the ledge. "All that stuff about this being too familiar...do I just forget that?"

"I...I don't know yet," Blake said. "I know I want to be with you, but that may be difficult for me, Ruby. And this time, if I see you start to become like Adam, I will tell you."

"Yay," Ruby said, punching one hand into the air. "To not being terrorists." Blake laughed. She wasn't sure why, but it felt good. She leaned against Ruby. 

"Okay. We're leaning again," Ruby said. "Is this something normal couples do?"

"If so, I don't think we qualify as a normal couple," Blake said. 

"What do you mean by that?" Ruby asked, sounding distressed. 

Smiling, Blake elaborated. "I am a Faunus. I was previously part of a Faunus-rights terrorist organization bent on wiping out humanity. You are a human girl who got turned into...a Gem, was it?" She paused. "How does that feel, by the way?"

Now Ruby leaned into Blake, and Blake sat up straighter. "Fine, I guess. I don't 'need' to eat or sleep, or even breathe now, and if I take a would-be killing blow, I'll just poof for a bit."

"You don't need to do any of that any more?" Blake asked. 

"No. I mean, I still can, but I don't need to," Ruby said. She began idly playing with some of Blake's hair. "Besides, not like sleeping's gonna be fun, the next time I do it."

"What do you mean?" Blake asked. 

"Uh...forget I said that last part," Ruby said hurriedly. 

"No. Ruby, what's wrong?"

Ruby leaned more on Blake. "Well...when Carnelian first came to Earth...carrying me...the first place she went was to her lab. She said to see if I was 'stable'. But...in there...I saw the previous people she had tried turning into Gems. And...it hadn't worked out so well."

"Oh, gods," Blake whispered. "I'm sorry. I hadn't realized you'd seen something horrific like that."

"They were still alive," Ruby continued, her voice cracking. "It was...it was...it was horrible." A single sob escaped her lips. Blake wrapped her arms around Ruby protectively. "We'll stop her. Then, we'll help them. However we can, we'll help them."

That seemed to comfort Ruby, who continued to sit there, sobbing quietly against Blake. After a bit, she seemed to fully calm down. "Okay," she said quietly. "This is nice."

"Yeah," Blake agreed. "I just wish that the fate of the universe wasn't in danger right now."

Ruby chuckled quietly. "Yeah. Me too."

"It just feels like--like we're never not in the middle of something big," Blake said. "Cause we've still got Roman to beat. And then there's always some drama going on at Beacon with someone or other. And now the tournament's coming up...we're on another planet..."

Ruby laughed. "Yeah. Hey, wait, does anyone at Beacon know where we went?"

"I don't think so," Blake answered, frowning. "Oh boy. We never told anyone."

"That's not good," Ruby said, puckering her lips. "Hmm. Four students just disappear, after an alien spaceship crashes in the woods."

Blake winced. She hadn't thought her actions through, and it appeared as if there were consequences. 

Ruby snuggled closer to Blake. "Well, we'll deal with it when we get back. After all, things can't have gotten too bad, right?"

"Roman was planning--" Blake stopped herself. "Yeah. You're right," she forced herself to say. 

"Blake being optimistic?" Ruby said with a smile. "What's going on here?"

For a few moments, right there, everything felt perfect. Then Ruby sat up, a look of alarm crossing her face. 

"What's wrong?" Blake asked. 

"I don't know," Ruby said. "What...something's happening." She doubled over, and Blake hurriedly pulled her away from the edge. "Ruby! Ruby, talk to me, what's happening?"

Ruby blinked, seeming confused. "I..." A slight cracking sound. Ruby's gem suddenly cracked. And Ruby screamed. 


	12. Dissonance

Steven had, luckily, been able to use his healing spit to fix Ruby's gem. Ruby had then sat down on a couch, curled up, arms crossed while everyone talked at once. 

"We still need to find Carnelian," Tourmaline said. "Whether or not Ruby needs help. Besides, if she does start cracking again, can't you just fix her again?"

"That's not a long-term solution," Pearl said, but Tourmaline interrupted. 

"We only need a short-term solution for right now," Tourmaline said. "The sun is beginning to set. Carnelian's machine will be ready to activate at midnight. She will turn everyone into Gems--and trust me, there's a lot of criminals out there I don't want to give immortality to."

"Except that this Carnelian got it wrong," Peridot added. "If what's happened with Ruby happens with everyone she turns into a Gem, then her machine's gonna kill everyone. And if Garnet is right, all Gems, too."

"We just need to find her and fight her," Jasper stated. "If we just do that, everyone lives. If we stop, everyone could die."

"We need to take it slowly," Garnet countered. "If we rush in head-first, Carnelian will have set up traps. In several futures where we fail, it's due to traps."

"We need to make sure Ruby's safe for right now," Steven said. "If we don't, she could die!"

"Steven, I didn't last as long as I did against Rose Quartz's armies by taking stupid risks," Jasper told him. "If we fail to stop Carnelian, everyone dies. Besides, as Tourmaline said, you can just bring her with you and heal her if need be. But our priority should be stopping Carnelian."

"Ruby," Yang shouted, "is sitting right there, and is capable of being addressed like a person." Clearing her throat, she asked Ruby, "What do you think we should do?"

"I'm going with you to stop Carnelian," Ruby said. "I'm not letting her hurt anyone else, and I'm not going to sit back while you guys fight for _my_ life."

"A fair enough point," Amethyst conceded. 

"We just need to find Carnelian," Tourmaline said. "We'll know as soon as she starts her machine--anything big enough to do anything to 'the entire universe' would put out a big enough signal that everyone for miles around should be able to see it."

 _Boom._ A beep came from Tourmaline's watch. "I spoke too soon," Tourmaline muttered. "Here's Carnelian."

Where the tower had came from, no one knew. It was almost a hundred feet high, seated in the exact center of Beach City. And it was covered in mounted guns. Gatling guns and machine guns and laser guns. 

Carnelian stood on top of her tower, grinning like the maniac she was, her double-axe resting on her shoulders. 

"How do we get up there?" Tourmaline asked. Lapis began flying up, but the guns fired at her. She quickly backed away, landing. 

Carnelian leapt down, landing with an echoing crack. "You just had to come and stop me, didn't you?" she said, still grinning. She hefted her axe. 

"Carnelian!" Steven cried. "It's not going to work! Your machine is going to kill everyone!"

"What's that? A last minute lie? So I'll break and shut it down?" Carnelian laughed. "Not going to work."

"If she's down here, she's not turning her machine on," Tourmaline said, entering a fighting stance. 

"She's here to distract us," Garnet said. "Her machine is fully autonomous. Once turned on like it is, it'll activate when its ready, with or without her up there."

"Oh, right, future vision," Carnelian said with a grimace. "Well, that cat's out of the bag." She spun her axe a bit, then pointed it at Steven. "Come on then, Pink-Steven. Let's--" A small, pink hand reached up and tapped her shoulder. Carnelian looked behind her. "Yes?" The hand poked her in the eyes. "Dammit!" Carnelian cried, clutching her face, staggering back. "Why? Every dam time..."

Spinel's hand snapped back to its normal length as she spun her scythe around. "I've got her! You handle the Geminator thingie!"

The Gems and humans ran around the pair and charged the tower. "No!" Carnelian cried, attacking Steven as he passed. Steven blocked with his shield. "I'm not going to let you stop this, Pink-Steven! You and the other Diamonds are going to lose today!"

"I'm trying to tell you--it doesn't work!" Steven repeated. "Ruby started cracking earlier! She's only alive because of my healing!"

"Stop lying to me! It worked! I didn't fail!" Carnelian hissed. Her axe blades clanged against Steven's shield. Steven slid backwards as Carnelian pummeled his shield. Spinel lunged, swinging her scythe, but Carnelian spun around and thrust one hand at her. One of her orange shields slammed into Spinel and threw the jester backwards. Steven slammed his shield into Carnelian, who was knocked backwards, but spun on her heels and rushed back at Steven. Crying out, Steven jumped aside, watching as the axe cleaved a streetlamp in half without even slowing down. 

With or without invulnerability, a hit from that axe would hurt. Carnelian spun and used her axe to block Spinel's scythe. "You know," Spinel said, "I may be a clown, but at least my job isn't the joke." Carnelian grabbed Spinel's scythe and threw her. Spinel landed on her hands and bounced onto her feet, by Steven. "She's not gonna listen to your words," she said quietly. "Antagonize her so she doesn't remember to protect her Geminator."

"Spinel, I'm not going to stop trying to reach through to her," Steven said. "I'm going to try and help her."

Peridot used her ferrokinesis to lift up a car and throw it at the tower. The guns shot it down. A bomb shell hit Garnet head on, knocking her down. She somersaulted backwards, bouncing on her hands as bullets hit the ground where she'd been standing. "The guns have limited range," she called out. "They don't shoot anything that moves outside that range."

An arrow from Opal's bow hit one of the gun's, damaging it. Opal fired again, but the arrows were shot out of the air. Opal glared at the tower as Tourmaline jumped forward, punching the air with her blue hand. An explosion of ice shards pelted the tower, followed by an explosion of fire when she punched with her red hand. Then she jumped back out of range of the turrets. "I hit it!" she cried. Most of the tower, however, remained undamaged. Glowering, she rolled up imaginary sleeves and rushed in again. A stream of water burst out of a nearby grate, and accelerated towards the tower. The gun's bullets did little to stop it as it collided with the tower, but again, dealt relatively low damage. 

Lapis struck again and again, but the water was now hot enough so that it evaporated as laser blasts collided with it. Lapis stretched out her hand, pulling out more water, and was immediately shot. Not by the tower. By Carnelian, who had pulled out her gun, and then went back to her battle with Steven and Spinel. Lapis fell out of the air, managing to flutter to the ground without a painful collision. Her shoulder, however, had been badly hurt by the bullet. 

"You alright?" Yang asked, firing at the tower with Ember Celica. A spree of other bullets hit the tower, but most were intercepted by the guns. 

"I can't really move my arm, and I can't manipulate water without my arms," Lapis said. "And Carnelian knew that her guns couldn't really take on the water..."

A shape rushed past them. Ladybug. "They fused again?" Lapis asked. 

"Looks like," Yang said. She fired once more, but her gun yielded only an unsatisfying click. "I"m out of ammo," she growled. 

"Me, too," Weiss said. "And if I had to guess..." Ladybug slammed into the ground beside them, breaking concrete. "...these two are as well."

"That's the reason I'm trying to get in melee with the damn thing," Ladybug muttered. Yang had no idea how fusion worked, but from what she knew, the fusion was a separate individual. The idea that Ruby and Blake stopped existing for a period of time freaked her out. Ladybug pulled up her sword-weapon--Gambol Rose? "I have no idea how to get to that thing. Ruby's Semblance allows me to get in, but I need Blake's to get out immediately. I can't actually inflict any damage on the tower itself."

"Too many guns," Opal said, firing another arrow. "I've taken out a few, but there are just so many."

"Hmm..." Ladybug adopted a look of concentration. "How far can you throw me?"

Opal stopped, an arrow drawn, and looked at the other fusion. "I'm sorry?"

"There are no guns on top of the tower," Ladybug explained. "If I can get up there..."

Opal unfused, leaving Amethyst and Pearl standing there. "Opal doesn't have that much raw strength," Pearl explained. "But another fusion could help."

"Garnet!" Amethyst called out. Garnet rushed over. "Ladybug has a plan! We need to form Sugilite and throw her on top of the tower!"

"Alright then," Garnet said, beginning the dance. Ladybug gaped as the massive fusion appeared. "But...Opal wasn't that big...and neither am I..."

"Do you want me to throw you or not?" Sugilite said with a toothy grin. Her fist-flail hit the ground, and Ladybug got on top of it. Sugilite began spinning her flail around fast. Pearl looked over and saw Carnelian. Carnelian looked at the fusions, then a slight grin split her face before she continued her own battle. 

"Wait! Stop!" Pearl cried. Too late, Sugilite released the flail, tossing it at the tower. The fist hit the tower, shaking it, but while it was mid-air, Ladybug jumped off, flying through the air with a burst of rose petals, and landed on top of the tower. 

Which was covered in bombs. 

Steven looked up when he heard the explosion. A blue burst of fire lit the top of the tower. Then Carnelian hit his shield. "Eyes on me, Pink-Steven," she growled with a grin. She shoved Steven backwards, then blocked an attack from Spinel. "Don't you know when to give up?" Spinel said, annoyed. 

"That's why I haven't given up yet," Carnelian laughed, shoving Spinel backwards. She attacked, with Spinel on the defensive. Spinel attacked with the scythe, but now Carnelian grabbed it and kicked Spinel in the gem. Spinel fell backwards, letting go, and Carnelian threw the weapon to the side. "Stop!" Steven cried. "You don't have to do this!"

"It's that I want to do this, Pink-Steven," Carnelian laughed. She stomped hard on Spinel's gem. Spinel cried out in pain. "I'm going to win. And look at that! Look who's showing up just in time for their defeat!" A ship descended through the clouds. "The other three Diamonds have finally arrived! The four of you will be able to watch as my machine activates! I will cure the entire universe of death! Not just the humans, but everyone! Zanians, Rechorax, Marvions...all of them! All of them!" She let loose a psychotic laugh. "I've finally done it! See, it's already beginning!" Red lightning was streaming through the tower. "I am going to win! You are going to lose! Who's laughing now, Pink-Steven?"

"Even if you win," Spinel said, "I'll still get the last laugh, bitch." She grabbed Carnelian's foot and shoved it to the side, knocking Carnelian off balance. As Carnelian struggled to avoid falling, Spinel reached out her hands to Steven, who took them, and she pulled herself over. Steven licked his hand and quickly applied the spit to Spinel's cracked gem, and the two stood up to continue facing Carnelian. 

"Nothing you can do will stop me," she said. Ladybug hit the road off to the side, sending chunks of concrete into the air. "Even if you kill me, it will activate. No one can stop it now!"

Ladybug stood up, then screamed in pain. Carnelian looked up in alarm as the two unfused, Blake and Ruby falling to the ground. Steven and Blake rushed over to Ruby. Her gem now sported a large spiderweb crack, which Steven hastily applied spit to. 

Carnelian fell to her knees, weapons disappearing. "You weren't lying," she whispered. "Oh God oh God...you really weren't lying."

"We need to stop your machine," Steven told her. "You may have meant well, but your machine is going to kill everyone."

"We can't."

"We need to! Why can't you just--"

"We can't!" Carnelian cried, tears streaming down her face. "It has no off switch. Nothing to unplug. No batteries to remove. It cannot be shut down without being completely destroyed. Neither of us have the power to do that!"

"But what about both of us?" Steven suggested, holding out one hand. Carnelian blinked, still crying. "We can still fix everything," Steven said. "And while you have done many bad things, things you shouldn't have done, you still get a second chance, Carnelian. You can still fix your mistakes. Blue, Yellow, White...they're all good guys now. Why not join them?" Steven gave one of his signature, confident smiles. Carnelian took his hand. A low, harmonic sound echoed through the air. The same long note that played when the Diamonds were nearby. 

"Fusing with me is going to hurt," Carnelian cautioned. 

"I'm sure I can handle it," Steven said. 

Sugilite's flail hit the tower, which shook, but still didn't break. But this time, the chain snapped beneath gunfire, and the fist fell to the ground. "Oh, come on!" the fusion roared. She summoned another flail. "We better finish this quickly before it turns on!" She stopped. A massive figure, almost as big as the tower itself, stood. It wore Steven's signature pink jacket, with an orange undershirt and black sash across it, except that the jacket went all the way to the ground, like a trenchcoat. Short fluffy hair was neatly arranged to one half of her head, and she hefted a giant battle axe. With a berserk cry, she lunged forward and sawed the tower in half, smashing through it as it exploded. 

The battle was over. 


	13. Epilogue

Carnelian had multiple labs, hidden across the world. The next closest one was near Beach City, in Ocean Town. Carnelian lead the way to a large desk covered in scientific equipment. She gestured to a nearby wooden chair, and Ruby sat. Carnelian pulled out a small device, and pushed a button. Orange light illuminated Ruby's gem, and Carnelian plugged the machine into a computer. "So that's where I went wrong," she whispered. She began typing fast, strange symbols lighting up the screen. 

Ruby sat there patiently, then looked at her friends. The rest of team RWBY, of course. And her newer friends, the Crystal Gems. 

"I'm going to need to poof you for this last part," Carnelian said. 

"Um...okay. Do I just..." Carnelian reached over, grabbed Ruby's gem, and twisted it. Ruby's form went up in a poof of red smoke, and she set the gem inside another machine, which began playing a long, repeating musical note as Ruby was bathed in orange light. Carnelian pushed a few last keys on the computer, then said, "She'll be back in a little bit. When the machine turns off, she'll be fixed. No more spontaneous cracks. But it'll take a good thirty minutes, and she is still conscious, so one of you ought to keep her company."

"Thank you," Blake said. Carnelian didn't answer, standing up. 

"What are you planning on doing now?" Steven asked.

Carnelian looked at him. Tears were streaking down her face. "My plan for the last hundred million years ended with me nearly wiping out all life in the universe--all the same life I was trying to help." She shook her head. "I need to think." She strode out of the room. "I need a long time to think. Long enough so that you shouldn't expect to see me again."

"Carnelian?" Steven said as she walked out the door. She stopped and looked at him. "Thank you."

Carnelian nodded. "Thank you as well." She strode out the door. White Diamond leaned in and the two began talking, with Blue and Yellow chatting, as well. Steven smiled as he stood in the doorway. "You plan on going back to your happy ever after?" Tourmaline asked. She leaned against the doorway. Steven nodded. "Yeah. And you?"

"I'm an intergalactic police officer," Tourmaline replied with a chuckle, straightening her ponytail. "Work, work, work, then sleep a bit at home on my day off. But I suppose it'll be easier knowing Carnelian isn't going to cause me any more troubles. And...knowing I'm not alone." She pulled her scarf aside, letting him see her gem. Steven lifted his shirt a little, revealing his gem. "We're a lot like each other, you and I. But..." She let the scarf cover her gem again. "We're also entirely different. I...I've never actually met other Gems before, and certainly no other half-Gems. I hadn't realized that when they fused, their gems didn't." A troubled look settled across her face. "But mine...my gem is a fusion. I know that. I've felt that every day of my life. I...I know Carnelian knows something about where I came from." She looked over to where Carnelian and White Diamond were still talking. Steven heard something that sounded vaguely like White singing, "~Come live with us at the pa-lace," and frowned. 

"You know, just odd word choices now and again," Tourmaline continued. "Odd remarks. Cryptic hints. But I never asked, and I don't think I'll get to ask. I think, though, I might be the result of one of her experiments, somehow."

"Well, I wish I could be of more help, but no one knows what my Mom did make me," Steven said. "And it's kind of hard to ask her, considering."

Tourmaline chuckled. "Well, love, I've gotta head back. I'll drop the kids off at their home, then I've got one HELL of a report to write," she said. She sighed, staring off into the distance. "One. Hell. Of a report." After a minute's silence, she added, "But I'll tell them I didn't want to start a war with the Gems if they ask why I didn't actually bring her in."

"Uh, yeah," Steven said. "I give her my official protection."

"Like I'd have given a crap," Tourmaline said with a snort. 

Ruby and Blake leaned against each other. Weiss and Yang sat on their bed together. 

"I'm glad to be almost home," Ruby said. 

"It's a twelve-hour flight, love," Tourmaline corrected. "I'd buckle up and be glad you still have the ability to sleep."

"Twelve hours?" Ruby asked. 

"It was a long twelve hours here," Blake said. "Very long."

"We managed to sleep off most of the flight," Yang said with a yawn. "But, still. I haven't had coffee in almost two days."

"What do we tell Professor Ozpin?" Weiss said with a sigh. 

"The truth," Ruby said. "And hope he believes it."

"Oh, boy, that's gonna be fun," Yang said. "I'm gonna get as much sleep as I can." She flopped over onto her back. Rolling her eyes with a slight smile, Weiss lay down beside her. 

Ruby lay down beside Blake. "Guess I'm gonna try sleeping."

"Do you feel tired?" Blake asked. 

"No. But it'll be a long twelve hours if I don't." She stared at the ceiling a minute. Tourmaline had gotten a new ship from another member of the intergalactic police--an alien that looked vaguely like the cross between a stapler and a pineapple. "Hey...if I have nightmares..." She trailed off. "I can't get Carnelian's lab outside of my head. Just...what I saw..."

"You don't have to say anything else," Blake interrupted. "I understand." She kissed Ruby on the cheek. 

Ruby smiled. "Blake?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad we're together."

"Me, too."


End file.
